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October 13The past few months, we have loved watching our granddaughter compete in Eventing with Maggie, her new horse . However, it is rather difficult to write a travel blog when we are not traveling. We do plan to get back on the road soon. Still drawing...

2016

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September 8Horse of Gold
Growing up in Washington DC and on the Chesapeake Bay, I never really noticed that heat/humidity thing. But now, OMG, after spending my first summer in the area in over 25 years, I get it. "It’s not the heat, it's the humidity!" I was able to draw some, but weeks with temperatures over 90° and crushing humidity left me clinging to the air conditioner and reading trashy murder mysteries. I did make it to the Gold Horses at Arlington Memorial Bridge to draw for a bit

July 21Memories in a Garden
I am definitely time tripping as I go around sketching the Washington, DC that my family has lived in for four generations. So much has changed, but most of the places I am drawn (ha, ha) to are the same ones I have been visiting since I was a small child.

July 7Drawing Einstein
Drawing around Washington, DC is turning out to be lots of fun, if a little hot and humid. OK, very humid. I like being a tourist in my original hometown.

June 16Muhammad Ali- The Boy on the Cliff
We are hanging out in Washington DC this summer. We will be watching Calli ride her new horse-Maggie, seeing friends and family and I will be having Blue Light Therapy on my face and some other body parts. I plan to go out two or three times a week and draw some of my favorite places in DC. Yes, I will be wearing sunscreen, hats, long pants and long sleeves.

April 14Not Weird, But Albuquirky
In Albuquerque, it's a wind, wind situation... En plein air...Dust grit in my teeth and on my eyeballs Keep drawing. Faster. Stop being so neat! Easy to draw, hard to paint

March 31It’s ART, by George! George Manus, Metal Cutter, Welder, ArtistIf the wind is blowing 35 to 40 miles an hour for several days in a row, you know you are in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Between windstorms, I stumbled upon an intriguing sculpture garden not far from where we were camped. And the best thing about it was the sculptor himself, George Manus.

March 17The Day I Became a Sexless Old CroneYou never know when a life-changing event is apt to occur. Attempting to draw hummingbirds at the Sonora Desert Museum, I had the unfortunate opportunity to see myself as strangers see me. I’m over it though.

Living free on public land can feel a bit third-world at times, but in fact our month here at Snyder Hill in Arizona has been one of the most interesting times we have had since we hit the road back in 2009.

Hidden amongst the rocks and scrub, musicians are all about us playing for the sun and stars.

January 28Tow a Vehicle? Only if it’s a New Ferrari! Bernie’s dad has a bucket load of brothers and they produced a ton of cousins. It has been our pleasure to meet up with many of them in our travels. The Pobiaks are a fun bunch. Last month we enjoyed every minute of our time with Marilyn and Dennis Pobiak and their grown children (second cousins?) and their kids (???). Our camper, parked next to Dennis’ collection of beautiful Ferraris and classic American cars made it feel like we were living in a museum for a month.

January 14In Defense of the Stick
We succumbed! This year a selfie stick was added to our camera accessory pack. Love it. Bernie is still using the Canon 5D-Mark II for most of our couplies, but we confess that using the stick with the iPhone has added to the fun of taking another year of couplies as the world changes behind us.

2015

December 3Following FredOh the Pinks!
“Bird, bird, bird, b-bird’s...” a verb... We birded for a week with Fred. No casual watching - we observed, checked field marks and stalked the little feathered beings through acres of rabbit bush, across mountain ridges and up stream beds.

September 10Musings on Dreams Come True
I thought living on the ranch waiting for Leroy to be born was a long time. Not so much. Mike broke his finger rather badly back in March, and we have been living on the Diamond K Ranch ever since - 30 horses, a couple of cowboys, the owner, her daughter, 11 cats, two dogs, our two dogs and us. Little did I know how much I would come to love walking this beautiful water-deprived land.

July 9
Working Boat Lifts for 3 Months
Our travels came to a stop back in March when our son, Michael injured himself. Ever since, we have been living on small horse ranch with 30 horses, while Bernie works 6 days a week as a replacement for Mike’s right hand.

June 25
El Paso, a Painted Town
As an artist who never met a "white" space I didn’t want to fill, I belong in El Paso. A dusty, dun colored city, where the residents are attempting to cover the entire landscape with murals and brightly colored light sculptures. It’s in your face! Pretty means nothing. The brighter the better! Bring on the Roses!

March 24Thorns in My Butt and Cement Blocks in the Weeds:
Chinati, The Mecca of the Minimalist World
Chinati and Marfa have become an A-list ART destination - much to the dismay of the old-timers in this tiny West Texas town. And from what I could overhear, on one of our visits to the huge installation, there were an awful lot of people who had no idea what they were doing in Marfa, much less Chinati. One gentleman wondered aloud if the 15 Works in Concrete were former sweatboxes left over from the fort’s stint as a German POW camp.

January 15POD: Pictures of the Day 2014I realize that everyone is doing selfies now, and yes, we’re still at it. Luckily, I married a man with a long arm, so we don’t need a "selfie stick" to include more than just one person in the picture. Enjoy!

2014

December 18
Great New Art Museum - If You Build It, I Will Come!
The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is surrounded by controversy. If you ever get to northwestern Arkansas, I suggest you visit... in fact, make the several hundred (or thousand) mile detour to see it. Walmart money or not, it is an evolving delight. There are several miles of art filled walking trails, a fantastic building, a very traditional growing permanent collection and forward looking exhibitions - great galleries, good to great art, knowledgable gallery attendants and good food and booze. It’s miles from nowhere, but go, you won’t regret it.

December 4
Five Years on the RoadThe second of November we began our sixth year on the road. Yes, we are older, yes we are still silly and yes, we never want to stop driving slowly about the country. Our memories include smoking 30 pounds of pork, dancing with huge cardboard sculptures, being trained by our two strong minded collies - Sully and Harry Fly and eating lots of fresh seafood. Horses, there were lots of horses.

November 25Drinking Pumpkins We slaved away in our test kitchens with many pumpkin flavored items, mostly alcoholic in nature, to bring you this delightful Thanksgiving Pumpkintini. Enjoy!

November 6How to Visit the Andy Warhol Museum
The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh? Spend the day! Enjoy the floating silver pillows, the soup cans, Elvis 11 Times, a stuffed great dane and everything else there is to see. Especially hang out in the Children’s Art Studio with all the other grown-ups. Here’s a short guide to help enhance your visit.
You will also see Bernie and Peggy malfunction in a photo-booth.

September 18Summer of the PigUntil I ate pork in Asheville, North Carolina I had forgotten just how delicious it can be. Dainty little vacuum packed tenderloins and carefully trimmed chops are not REAL pork!

Oink!

September 12I’m With the Band EventerIt’s dusk, the fireflies are blinking and I’m sitting outside the camper watching a little girl across the way prancing her acrylic horse on a picnic table. Softly, I can hear her singing, "Do you wanna build a snowman..." It seems so long ago that I watched little Calli make set-ups and playing out elaborate stories with her Breyer horses. (And we thought THAT was expensive!)

The Quest for the Perfect Art Bag
Every woman wants the perfect pocketbook and every artist or would-be artist quests for the perfect bag to hold their supplies while they nimbly traverse the the world sketching happily. The bag must be ightweight, roomy, self-cleaning yet sleek and stylish. After 70 years, my search is over. I have achieved THE BAG!

May 28Meet Harry Fly Taylor, Our First Tri-colored Collie
We have a new puppy! We have a new puppy! A big baby, that still has a tiny puppy squeaky-bark. We’re teaching him to man up and lower the bark. Yup, we're doing a lot of basso barking to encourage him.

Did I mention, we have a NEW PUPPY?

May 1Rolex Kentucky: Best Weekend All Year
Dressage, Cross-Country and Stadium Jumping: We joined 4 young teenage girls, one mother and 60 horse-and-rider combinations from seven nations to watch the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event last weekend. It was a thrilling (exhausting for us) marathon. One of the girls, Sophie Gary, has written a wonderfully breathless account of the events that absolutely captures the tempo of the weekend.
And so, if Jack Kerouac had been a young girl, one who loved her best buds and horses, it might have gone something like this...
Sophie is officially our first Guest Writer...

April 10They Are Among Us: There is a great deal to learn about the life history and behavior of the Great Blue Heron, but you won't find it in this post. Instead, be charmed... be amazed...

March 25
Soldiers of a Faux WarI shall remain forever confused by the desire of some people to reenact battles, to shoot glorified cap pistols at each other, sleep on the ground, eat almost nothing and pretend it is anything like a real war...ort Fisher, Fort Anderson and the Battle of Forks Road around Wilmington, North Carolina... we relived them all in one form or another.

February 20Requiem in Glass
The Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina is a good enough reason to travel this country. It is an innovative gateway to wonderful regional art as well as a center for art classes, activities, events, music and living history - plus it has a beautiful cafe with a superb chef and a full bar!

February 13Chocolate and Wine, Tar Heel Style
Wilmington, NC - I haven't thought much about Valentine's Day since elementary school. Back in the 1950s, the week before the big day was rife with giggles and mysterious smiles as we each dropped our lacy heart creations for our special friends into a large cardboard box decorated with cut-out red hearts and white lace paper doilies.

January 30Warm Weather, Hot FooWilmington, North Carolina — After a visit to the very large and popular seahawk sculpture on the University of North Carolina Campus (Visitors love to climb on her back and reenact scenes from Avatar), we headed for the Front Street Brewery in downtown Wilmington. Bar food, beer and football hype -- here we come!

January 17Lassie, Hit the Road
In just a few days we will be heading away from the northeast towards parts unknown.... I'm ready for a lonely ocean beach somewhere, a place where I can do my version of contemplative thinking. The big thoughts, like should I keep on hi-lighting my hair with purple? Should I stop eating red meat? Is Hugh Jackman as nice on the inside as he is on the out?

January 9Couplies: Forty+ Years
So Selfie is the Oxford Dictionary’s 2013 “Word of the Year.” Good for us and our Couplies! We have been taking pictures of ourselves for a really long time. We took the oh-so-young picture of us on the About Us page in 1970 with a shutter release cord, Bernie’s dad’s tripod and a couple of gelled spotlights.

2013

December 24
"I'll Be Home for Christmas"
At a recent party, the hostess asked us to share our favorite Christmas memory. I came up with something nice and upbeat. That's because every time I try to tell my real favorite Christmas memory I blubber like a baby.
I know Christmas 1944 is my most haunting...

December 5Travels with Sully
Our Sully, he’s a road dog. Since he came to us as a puppy in 2005, he has logged more than 80,000 miles in the camper. He’s crossed the country to California twice. Been to Key West, the fence in San Diego, the Olympic Peninsula and way down east in Maine. He loves New Orleans, St. Louis and Austin.

November 27Thanksgivings Past - Traveling Only in Time
It’s not just the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy; or the stuffing, crab bisque or pumpkin pie that I remember. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it is filled with memories of grandmothers and grandfathers long gone from this planet, and of hysterical failures and serving faux-pas. Much of the real excitement used to center around the carving of the big bird itself.

November 7Asbury Park: No Dusty Arcades... No Carnival Life on the Water
Last week, i found myself once again in Asbury Park, New Jersey, staring at an almost empty beach and boardwalk. I stood in the sand thinking that this little piece of urban decay never really seems to change. It appears that even after Hurricane Sandy, it has been restored to all its full neglected, dilapidated glory.

October 24So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
For months I tried to imagine what it would be like to leave the hatchery, to say good bye to the almost one million babies that I had cared for since they were just fry, less than an inch long. When I left last week, the salmon that would be remaining in the pools through the winter were as long as 7 inches. Big kids!

September 26Pursuit of the Moose
Much as I have enjoyed the moose-burgers, moose steaks and moose sausage that Fred the Foodie at the hatchery has been gracious enough to share with us, Isave been longing for a real live moose. True, a head with at least a 50” antler spread hangs over our office door, but it doesn't really count as a moose. Its a deadhead.

September 12
Rugged Food ForagingIt turns out that Bar Harbor has a few small brew pubs and some foodie joints, and so in the spirit that once led us up and down mountains, we visited a couple of `them.

Tough job, but we ate and drank our way through it...

September 6In the Voice of John Facenda, "And So It Begins..."Watching football is a lot like eating a really great black and blue New York strip steak - I don’t really want to know too much of the back story. Both the meat and the game are guilty pleasures I cannot seem to forgo.
I love football!

August 29We Walk Around, We Throw food, We Clean ...and we love itWe are still working in our spa-like, fish-filled waterfall. All day long gravity pulls the water from Green Lake above, through the hatchery, out through the settlement ponds and into Graham Lake below. The water flows at about 5,700 gallons per minute.

August 20Bugging Out:
For some time, I have been meaning to post a piece about bugs. You know, bugs that have bugged me. They have caused temporary blindness, unbearable itching, sleepless nights, wrenching fear of disease, legs and feet on fire, appalling swellings about my nose and cheeks and a slapping, batting variation of St. Vitus’ Dance...

July 18The Crying Fish
We followed the government pick-up truck as it sped beneath the pine trees along the back roads of Maine from the Veazie Dam on the Penobscot River to the fish hatchery almost 30 miles away. The vehicle was carrying precious cargo - a tank containing 8 adult, endangered, sea run atlantic salmon.

July 9A Great City to Walk in
The Spirit of St. Louis, it’s more than an airplane, beer, and an arch... Deep in the heart of flyover country lies the once great metropolis of St. Louis, Missouri, and in our hearts one of the most interesting cities in the United States. Come. Stop. Walk.

June 18

The Perfect Lobster
This is going to be about cooking lobsters, but it could just as easily be about butter. I’m pretty sure I could eat a boiled turkey vulture if I had enough butter to dip it into. Surely the earliest people to eat homarus americanus must have had drawn butter to drench the meat of such an vicious looking creature.

June 6One Fish at a Time - Raising Atlantic SalmonWorking in Green Lake Fish Hatchery is like living in a waterfall. All day long we listen to the sound of rushing water as it pours from pipes and freshens the 46 tanks in the salmon nursery... all day long the dedicated biologists, assistants and volunteers (us) monitor, hand feed, clean and flush the tanks for the 900,000 tiny, little fry babies.

May 23Stalking the Wild Fiddlehead
I am alone, and I mean alone, in the woods. No one around at all. Each morning I have walked down to the hatchery tanks to watch the salmon fry grow for a while.
After watching 17 episodes (at least) of Law and Order in all its various Iterations, it came to me that I probably should attempt to do something with my life..

May 16
Fiddleheads, Fish and Vodka
We shopped our way from Boston to Maine, stocking up at big box discount stores: 50 pounds of dog food at PetCo, 50 rolls of TP at Costco along with enough charcoal to grill 50 steaks. Oh yeah, and six liters of cheap vodka. (To fully immerse yourself in the Kirkland Vodka controversy just Google Costco Vodka.)

May 10No Blue Highways This Trip
I can see why they call it flyover country. From the interstates, this whole country looks mostly - BIG! Interchanges are banked with the same fast food signs KFC, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger KIng, Pizza Hut... Failed motels, gas stations, casinos, grain elevators, Wal-marts, wind farms, refineries, and trains appear over and over along the highway...

April 29Old, but not “Old Masters”
On our hard drive back to the east coast, we did stop outside Albuquerque, New Mexico and take a few hours to hike around the Boca Negra Canyon and Volcano. It was a beautiful morning on the mile high trail and locating the petroglyphs was a lot of fun.

April 19Birth of the Horse King
Time compressed before our eyes last week. Sally was still clinging to the creature growing inside her body. Clenching her birthing walls together she was standing firmly foal-le

April 5It’s Getting Biblical...
For 40 Days and 40 nights we have been at the Diamond K Ranch waiting for our grandhorse, Sally, to give birth to her foal...On the 39th day, April 3, we marked her pregnancy at one year. That is a long, long time to be pregnant.

March 19Hurray for Hollywood...sort of
Oh to return to those glamorous days of yesteryear, when on star-studded nights, Carmen Dragon conducted the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Lana Turner placed her hands and shoes into wet cement in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater... and a huge real estate sign promoting the housing development, Hollywoodland, watched over Tinseltown...

March 14Esther Williams visits her Dream House
- at last I have come
A few weeks ago we visited Hearst Castle, high on a hill, near San Simeon overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I had always remembered the mansion in Citizen Kane and had hoped to someday visit it. As I grew older, I learned that the mansion in the movie was mostly painted screens and the exteriors were photographs of another castle...

March 5FOAL NEWS NETWORK
As native Washingtonians, and having raised our two children in the city, I cannot but wonder how it is that they both have ended up living horse-centric lives—Liz, with her daughter, an event rider, and Mike with his wife, a rodeo rider, now raising horses.
Once again we find ourselves in the land of horse trailers...

February 26
Fish? Millions of Fish Eggs? Fish Hatchery?
Having grown up on the Chesapeake Bay, Bernie and I have always enjoyed fishing and crabbing... but fish husbandry??? Last fall we visited the Elk River Hatchery. We loved watching the tanks of steelheads, rainbow trout, and chinook, and the room with millions of steelhead and chinook eggs in incubating boxes. It got us thinking...

A new bird (to me) has taken over as Number One on my list of Top Birds. He has been described as, “the epitome of avian entertainment,” This bird is charming, hardworking and sociable. They are neither large (slightly smaller than a robin) nor rare. However, if they are around, they pretty much take over the neighborhood...

February 13

“Drive-Over” Country: Under the Overpass "
Back in the 70’s, my tastes in photography inclined towards abandoned buildings, tagged subway cars and construction sites. That was good, because as a result of the ’68 riots, the nation’s capitol remained pretty run-down and empty for years...

February 6San Diego: Walks on Two Kinds of Wild Sides
We are pretty sure we are going to be one of those old couples that one day just walks off into the desert. Hopefully into a gloriously setting sun.
We love to walk somewhere. Anywhere. Not all walks are divine, but in San Diego, we took two swell ones.

January 29The White Camper Tour with Sully
Yep, we are inside that white box enjoying a “pink” cocktail while we wait for the coals to get hot enough for us to grill eggplant slices, portabella mushrooms and red peppers for our quesadillas.

January 22Tidal Pools and a Sculptor
Over 400 feet above sea level, Cabrillo National Monument has it all: Fabulous views of San Diego and the Coronado Islands, Navy jets flying past, beautiful sunsets on the Pacific, a Cape Cod style refurbished lighthouse and an occasional pod of passing gray whales.

January 15, 2013
POD: Picture of the Day 2012
Watch our hair grow;
Watch us grow older;
Watch us in health and sickness.
For most of 2012 we managed to take a picture of ourselves almost everyday.

January 8, 2013Remembering the Desert and Southwest Texas
It’s the the beginning of a new year, and for a change we are not traveling on New Year’s day. For the first time since we left New York City in 2009 we have decided in advance to stay someplace for at least a month. The place we have chosen is San Diego, California

2012

December 21, 2012Holidays on the Road
Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve! These are serious holidays, and they all occur within a few minutes of each other. Singing, spinning, jumping, drinking...

December 12, 2012Maybe Dale Chihuly is all there really is?
Like my mother, and her mother before her, I am a crow. We have each loved bright, shiny, colorful things...especially glass with light shining through it. This explains why, for the past ten years I will always make the extra effort to see the works of Dale Chihuly if they are nearby...

November 14, 2012
Small Camper, BIG Thanksgiving Dinner
This is what it’s like to have a cozy camper Thanksgiving. We cooked, snacked, drank wine and watched football all day. It was dark out by the time we overate our traditional feast.

November 5, 2012
iPhone and I Visit The Portland Art Museum:
The teenagers were having a lot of fun with their phone cameras and the Greek Statues at the Portland Museum's exhibit, The Body Beautiful. Mimicking poses, standing with Hercules like he was a personal friend, self-portraits... I too wanted to play with my phone camera, and so I did.

October 29, 2012...and the Fourth Year Begins
Standing over the Pacific Ocean on the northwestern most tip of the United States, I pulled out our still shiny old flask filled with a fresh pouring of Duck Hunter’s Special (a warming 50/50 blend of carcinogenic cream sherry and bottom shelf, burning bourbon) and we toasted the moment! Double goal achieved.

October 22, 2012Tale of Two Meals One of the greatest pleasures we have had driving up the Pacific Coast of the United States is preparing and eating the fresh fish. In as many places as possible, we have purchased the freshly caught fish from boats in the harbors, taken those fresh fillets or steaks home and grilled them.

October 8, 2012The Fog and the Redwood Forests
Here along the Pacific Coast of Northern California, fog does not creep in on little cat’s feet. It lurks off shore, like it is hiding the edge of the world... Early mornings I watch it sweep across the horizon and roll towards land...suddenly I cannot see the edge of the cliff just off to my left.

September 24, 2012Of Broken Glass, Green Gingerbread and Chain-Saw Bears...: One of our favorite things to do is visit wildlife refuges. We started in the early 1970s because the only place to see rare Canada Geese back then was on the DelMarVa peninsula. Every winter we would drive to Blackwater or Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. There we would stand and listen to their wild calls...

September 17, 2012Same Braxton, but this Fort Bragg is in California
The hand lettered sign on the cinderblock building said, RV Overnighters. It was with some trepidation that we pulled off California Highway 1, just south of Fort Bragg and headed towards a clump of older double wides we had seen from the road. Maybe just for a night we thought... if they have a space...

September 11, 2012The North Coast with Oysters
Back again traveling the coast of the United States... We picked up our journey at Muir Woods National Monument, an ancient redwood grove just north of San Francisco. It was especially nice to leave the 100+ degree temperatures around Oakley, CA and travel just 60 miles west where the temperature in the forest that afternoon hovered around 70 degrees.

September 4, 2012 Night Sounds and Trains Passing By
Our apartment in New York City was located right over the tracks of the northbound Number 1 train. Living on the first floor, nights we could lie in bed and feel the rumble of the train as it headed beneath us up Broadway to Van Cortlandt Park-242 Street in the Bronx. Sometimes I imagined lonely people sitting in empty cars...

August 27, 2012Pepper Pickers and Eating Local
I was just a kid during WW2, but I remember my grandparents had a Victory Garden. Until the day they died, it would have never occurred to them not to grow their own fruits and vegetables. Every year at the end of the summer, I had to help my grandmother “put food by.”

August 20, 2012Straddling Two WorldsJust east of San Francisco, lies the Delta Country of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, an unusually hot and dusty place in July... Fast forward to London, England, early August, where Calli, Liz and I journeyed to watch the 2012 Equestrian Olympics.

July 17, 2012A Real Manhattan Theater Wedding
A few weeks ago we took a whirlwind trip to New York City for a very special wedding. Our friends, Jon and Ryan were wed on the stage of the Mint Theater in the Theater District of Manhattan. They were married on June 28 before Bernard Pobiak, a Universal Life Church minister, while friends and family joyously watched.

June 18, 2012Viva Las Vegas
It was the summer of 1956 and I was on a family road trip across the US in our four-door, hardtop, aquamarine and white Buick Roadmaster. The night of July 1st, we stayed in a small motel out on Las Vegas Boulevard and it was fiercely hot. My dad got tickets to see Ken Murray, Busty Marie Wilson and the Blackouts (showgirls) at the New Frontier. But I had other plans...

June 5, 2012Canyons: All Grand
Yesterday in Zion National Park, Utah, we had the most wonderful hike I can remember. We hiked a mile down an accessible path to the Narrows, waded into the Virgin River and walked along in the shaded water between canyon walls thousands of feet high -sometimes so close we could touch both sides.

May 28, 2012Seeking Edward Abbey's Solitude...I'm standing In a place I have wanted to be since 1969 when I first read Edward Abbey’s, Desert Solitaire. Gazing across a wide gorge at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, I am exhilarated and yet ridiculously disappointed and frustrated.

May 21, 2012Continuing in the Footsteps of Timothy O’Sullivan:
Timothy O’Sullivan, as part of two US Government surveys in the years from 1868-1874, traveled about the American West in a horse-drawn wagon - photographing the western landscape. From the beginning of our travels in a motorhome back in the 70s we always wanted to have a mobile darkroom...

May 14, 2012Still Living with Horses
Part of life on the road includes flying back to see my granddaughter for a few days every eight weeks or so. The other morning Calli and I were talking and saying good-bye for a while. She suggested that I write more about family and horses on because I love her and everybody there so much...

April 30, 2012Walking Around Santa Fe, NM
One of our favorite things to do is walk around a new town. Living in a small motor home means we don’t do much shopping, but we enjoy looking in the windows, eating out and meeting people. On our last day in Santa Fe, we decided to do a bit of "cocktailing" and grazing downtown.

April 23, 2012
The Open-Minded Collie
When Sully was only four months old he had already discovered how wonderful it is to meet and share nose touching, body rubbing and butt sniffing with beings who are not just like himself. We are so proud of our Sully and the way he embraces all mammal-kind...

April 16, 2012Pitfalls of life on the roadFlat tires we've had a few... When you get a flat tire in an 11,000 lb. motor home you don’t just jump out, jack it up and change the tire. That just just cannot be done, especially with huge 18 wheelers passing within inches of your disabled home. Here is how it actually goes...

April 9, 2012The Wild Bunch:
Single Action Shooting Society
Last Saturday we were invited to watch a Wild Bunch Shoot-Out in a mock-up of an old west town...And so it was early on Saturday morning that we found ourselves way, way far away in a very barren landscape watching members of the Chisum Cowboys Wild Bunch compete Cowboy Action Shooting™.

April 2, 2012Writing on Property :)
Growing up in Washington DC, for years I thought all public art was white and reflected the color of the sky... usually a cool bluish white... monuments, memorials, even the Capitol and White House. Then one day in the very early 80s a marvelous face showed up high on the side of a building...

March 26, 2012The Austin RodeoBox seats at a big rodeo? Of course we would love to have them! What? A card for entry to the Founder’s Club above the arena for appetizers before it starts, a pass for free parking by the door, tickets to X-100, a private music venue, after the rodeo? Yes. Yes. Yes... and there was more...

March 19, 2012Bernie and Peggy, Mall CopsIt was a dark and stormy afternoon and we were the only two brave souls booked into the Segway Nation Tour...Yes, we took our lives into our hands and decided it was time to brave the jeers of family and friends and take a segway tour.

March 12, 2012Spring, when my fancy turn to thoughts of MomLast week-end I was able to enjoy a sentimental return to the Lady Bird Wildflower Center outside of Austin. Ten years ago I had visited the gardens on the only four generations trip - Liz, Mom, Calli and I - were ever able to take together.

March 5, 2012Everyday Pleasures
What other small things have we done so far this year that we have really enjoyed? With that in mind here is a short list of everyday pleasures while living day to day on the road in Mid-Texas.

February 27, 2012I Coulda Been a Contender...
I have discovered what I want to be when I grow up: A Roller Derby Babe. There will be breast augmentation involved plus work in the weight room and a shot or two of HGH. But hey, I’m up for it... and I do so love wearing ripped black lace tights...

February 20, 2012For Want of a Shoe...
Day after day we were camped or moving slowly through the sleet, snow or freezing rain. And every day I was slapping myself with a cold, damp sock for being lazy and not buying myself a pair of warm waterproof shoes at Harry’s while I was back in New York City...

February 13, 2012isit to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum
We are POTUS geeks. We know it. Library, Birthplace, Museum, Summer Home, Winter White House, we visit and love them all.Over this past weekend, we spent several hours visiting the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum In Austin, Texas.

Feburary 6, 2012Donut or Doughnut?
It’s hard to remember the exact moment when my love for donuts started us on a quest across America to find the perfect one. Whatever it may have been, that memory is clouded in a haze of sugar, sugar glaze and pink sugary frosting.

January 27, 2012Seldom seen...
As amateur birdwatchers, we always like to see the big birds, and the big migrations. It is, after all, much easier to identify a bird that stands 3 to 4 feet tall than a tiny warbler 40 feet up in a tree. Years ago, during our journeys around the country, we ALMOST saw two wonderfully large bird events...

January 19, 2012Inside Outsider Art in Houston, Texas
One of the great reasons to return to Houston is to visit their Visionary Arts Center, The Orange Show. Created by postman, Jeff McKissack... using recycled and found objects, the multifaceted sculpture turned what was once an empty lot in East Texas into a great piece of folk-art...

January 5, 2012New Year’s Day 2012We are now undertaking a major, fast road trip — 500 miles to Houston, Texas. The Houston Texans just earned a wildcard berth in the NFL play-offs, so we are headed south to Reliant Stadium in Houston to tailgate one more time this season. (If we get there, and can prepare ourselves, it will make an even 10 stadiums we have visited in the two years we have been on the road.)